1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a coital protective garment useful during sexual activity in preventing skin contact with sexual and body secretions of the other coital partner.
More specifically, the invention relates to a coital protective garment affording barrier protection to the genitals and surrounding skin areas of the lower abdomen and thighs, as a means of precluding skin contact of each of the coital parties with the sexual and body secretions of the other, to assist in the prevention of transmission of sexually transmittable disease.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recent disclosures by the Centers For Disease Control (Washington and Atlanta), and reports at the Third International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C. in June, 1987, have focused international attention on the proliferation of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in the general population, beyond the orginally defined high risk classification groups of homosexuals, bisexuals, intravenous drug users, and Haitian/African groups.
The diseases with which AIDS has been or is suspected to be linked include Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, Kaposi's sarcoma, esophageal or bronchopulmonary candidiasis, extrapulmonary cryptococcosis, cytomegalovirus internal organ infection, disseminated Mycobacterium avium complex or M. kansasii infection, chronic herpes simplex ulceration, chronic cryptosporidiosis enteritis, toxoplasmosis of the brain, highgrade B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, disseminated histoplasmosis, chronic isosporiasis enteritis, and lymphoid interstitial pheumonia in children.
In a recent San Francisco cohort study reported in "AIDS: The Cost in Health and lives," Selik, M. D, Richard M., et al, The Internist, April, 1987, pp. 6 et seq, there was found to be, for every case of AIDS in the group studied, nine cases of other HIV-related morbidity. As also reported in this article, cohort follow-up studies indicate that the proportion of HIV-infected persons who will ultimately develop AIDS ranges from 25 percent to 50 percent or more depending on the length of follow-up and the patient's clinical status at the beginning of the study. Mathematical modeling of this trend in reported AIDS cases has led to a projection that the cumulative total of AIDS cases will be 270,000 by 1991, and the number reported that year alone will be 74,000.
Recently reported case studies have included instances where apparent transmission of the AIDS retrovirus (human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV) has been effected by contact of infected blood or saliva with the skin of persons who were later determined to have been infected. One of the reported cases involved the splashing of infected blood from a blood bag onto acned facial skin; another involved apparent transmission via infected saliva contact with a cut on a dentist's finger. These cases suggest that any lacerations, contusions, abrasions, hives, boils, pustules, or other localized discontinuities in the skin surface, may provide a potential entry portal for the retrovirus, resulting in infection by simple skin contact with body fluids, e.g., blood, (including dermal bleeding from injury or disease, and blood from normal menstrual functioning) saliva, semen, etc., from another infected individual.
Inasmuch as a primary mode of infection in the reported cases has been sexual contact with an infected person, the recent findings raise the possibility that contact of skin areas surrounding the genitalia and on the lower torso may, if there are any defects in skin integrity, provide an increased risk of transmission of the virus, even when condoms are employed. Thus, the skin of the groin region, including the lower abdomen and upper thighs may present a possible site for infection during sexual activity, from skin contact with body fluids and sexual secretions of the other coital partner.
In addition to such possible transmission of the AIDS virus by entry through localized skin defects in the recipient, there is also the possibility that other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) may be similarly transmitted, including clamydia, herpes, papilloma, syphilis, gonorrhea, lymphogranoloma venerum, and the like.
The foregoing has heightened pertinence in view of the fact that localized skin disorders occur with high frequency in the lower abdominal and thigh regions. Examples include infected ingrown pubic hairs, pimples, blackheads, boils, rashes, herpes, dermatitis, allergic reactions, and the like, which, comprise or result in localized skin discontinuities and other defects in skin integrity.
In sum, the potential for dermal invasion of viral and other infectious agents via localized skin defects in the groin area, by contact thereof with sexual and/or other body fluids of an infected person during sexual activity, raises concerns about the reliability of condoms and similar means as effective preventatives for transmission of STDs, particularly in view of the occurrence of groin skin contact with sexual secretions of a coital partner even when condoms are employed.
Accordingly, there is a perceived and perhaps critical need for the provision of means affording enhanced protection to the skin in the groin area, e.g., from the umbilicus to at least the upper thighs, of an individual during sexual activity, which prevent dermal contact with a sexual partner's coital secretions, e.g., semen, seminal fluid, vaginal exudate, etc., in such body region.
There is also a need in the provision of such means to provide protection of a type which does not entail the risk of any secondary infectious contact, such as when a protective or barrier article is removed following intercourse.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide such protection means, for avoidance of dermal contact of groin area skin with sexual and body fluids of a coital partner.
It is another object of the invention to provide a protective means of such type, in the form of a protective garment which is readily applied to the person of the wearer, unobtrusively deployed during sexual contact, and subsequently readily removed from the person of the wearer, without the risk of secondary contact with the exterior fluid-contacted surface of the garment article following coitus.
Other objects and advantages will be more fully apparent from the ensuing disclosure and appended claims.